Positioning yourself for a miracle
Gen 15:3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. Gen 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
There are two types of miracles that take place amongst us. One is the kind that is initiated by God to show His great power as in the miracles He did in Egypt and in the wilderness for Israel for 40yrs. The other type is the one that takes place on our request of God for the impossible to happen.
When Abraham requested God for an heir, his wife Sarah was already barren. Abraham knew that he needed a miracle. Maybe, you need a miracle. Have you asked God? I believe that everything that we need to receive from God is by way of asking. Jas 4:2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. After asking, comes receiving by faith the word of promise concerning what we asked God for. Once that is complete, we have to deal with the time frame by faith. Finally, we have the manifestation of the miracle that God performs. We see all these factors in play in the verses above that Abraham received for his miracle to happen.
All this requires patience of great magnitude. Not everyone can wait and so we try to make miracles happen based on our own efforts. Such a person was Sarah (Abraham’s wife), who unleashed a whole generation of people that were not meant to be, when she gave Hagar to Abraham to surrogate a child. They ended up with Ishmael who was not God’s choice and so God allowed the excommunication of Hagar & Ishmael from Abraham’s camp as it was not what He had promised Abraham. Man’s mistake was again dealt with by God to provide another solution. However, that act of Sarah and Abraham did not nullify the promise of God to Abraham. This is the amazing virtue of a covenant keeping God. Abraham continued on his journey in life and waited on God. The Bible records that through faith and patience, Abraham inherited the promise of God.
What we must do as believers is, not try to make things happen in our strength concerning the promises of God. We have to appropriate (take hold of) what Jesus did on the cross for us and receive His word on it. When we believe the word that is delivered to us, we have what we have asked for. Faith allows us access to the victory of Jesus on the cross that made available to us, eternal life, healing, deliverance, soundness of mind, security and prosperity. This means, we can access all areas of life through this and bring into play miracles when they are most needed. We can live life based on these promises of God by appropriating them through faith. Not all will work by faith because some of them will work out of God’s own purpose for us like when He provided for Israel in the wilderness.
When we desire what is not meant for us, we will wait in vain. For example, if we desire a promise from God to waste it on our lust, we will not receive it. Jas_4:3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Many a good Christian has misunderstood this particular area of praying. They have repeatedly asked for a miracle in an area that they are not supposed to even ask for. One such area is in marriage. Many have asked to marry partners outside of the faith. This is not in God’s will. If they proceed on this matter, they will invariably produce and Ishmael. Others have proceeded on human plans and have had things fall in place in the natural and because of this have claimed that it was God who had made it possible. This ofcourse was not God at all but the devil or circumstances falling into place by design of human endeavour. I remember falling into this trap while taking a serious decision in life after waiting ten years on God for a miracle to get married. When this did not eventuate, I went ahead with my plans while ignoring the warnings by God only to end up in trouble. I made it sound to myself that God was in it by defining my own miracle. God got me out of it eventually but after I made a fool of myself.
Miracles must be viewed with the proper perspective or else they will dazzle us into believing things that are not true. In the last days, there will be many miracles and many will not be true. Rev_16:14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 2Th_2:9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
When true miracles happen, they are just astounding in nature. The visible miracles of healing are such a joy to watch. It not only proves God cares and heals but that it is possible. It causes us to believe even more and seek God for what is possible in our lives. When miracles happen in relation to prayer and declaration, they are even more exciting because it is happening as a response to a verbal request by us. Then, when miracles happen that have to be outworked, it is beautiful to watch as things come into play bit by bit. This is called working of miracles that operate out of the gift of the Holy Ghost.
A miracle is needed when someone is in dire need of an impossible situation to be fixed in whatever arena of their lives it is needed. I particularly like the ones that God moves to make happen based on His word. It is spectacular to say the least. When God spoke to Moses and told him to go to Egypt, Moses, the Egyptians and the Jews saw miracles like never before. When Jesus came on the scene on earth, people saw miracles like never before. Since the Holy Ghost came on the scene, we have seen ordinary men do miracles like never before. The dead are raised, people healed of incurable diseases, impossible situations sorted out and many such things that are done in the holy name of Jesus.
We should be a generation of people who should believe in miracles. It is God’s gift to us. Many have stopped believing for anything in their lives and have slipped back into hopelessness over their lives. They have yielded to satan and his lies about God and His willingness to do miracles. We must restore to the Church the truth about miracles. God is constantly doing it in my life and I know that miracles are for today in every arena of life.
Positioning oneself for a miracle is based on hearing God. Once God speaks, all we have to do is walk by faith and not by sight. Sight always seeks to revert what God has said. This is how satan deceived Eve when she saw the fruit was good for eating and wisdom. We should instead believe God’s word that has come to us and position ourselves for a miracle. That means, obedience and be in the right place at the right time. The wilderness can be a place of great difficulty in a person’s life. Long years are wasted or seems to be wasted because one has walked in unbelief and disobedience. Yet, through obedience and faith we can go forward into the Promised Land. This too is positioning. That is, to receive our miracle. God is waiting for a generation of people who will believe Him. Faith these days seems to be in the hands of a few. We must rise up and fight based on God’s word and using God’s word as a sword. The word of God is the only way to receive what God has for us because it is Spirit and life to us. When God speaks, it is done. Abraham positioned himself for 25 years and made a few mistakes along the way. Somehow, his faith remained in spite of the mistakes but I would say that it was so because God kept His side of the promise. I think, we should be more aware of God’s love and concern for us than to worry about how long He is taking or His quietness in answering. We must persevere based on the promises of God revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Instant miracles of healing and other answers to prayer in impossible situations are not always the way God works. Sometimes, He takes His own perfect time to produce that miracle. Jesus did not come at the beginning of creation. He came at an appointed time through a miracle birth that was an act of God and not of man. Likewise, the miracle salvation of an individual is also in the hands of the God though not entirely. God requires us to spread the gospel most times before He will move to save. I needed a miracle when I was a drug addict and an alcoholic for over 20 years. Yet, my miracle only came when someone preached the gospel to me 20 years later and I received it.
Today, I position (couch) myself in the word (prophetic word) to find my miracles and so each time a miracle takes place, I find relevance in the word to it. I also see the prophetic reasoning behind miracles. They are not isolated incidents. They are deliberate acts of God that bring about change in the atmosphere and in people’s lives. When we position ourselves for miracles, we will see more of them. They are in the supernatural waiting to happen. We must be obedient and in the right place at the right time. We must pray the prayer of Apostle Paul in Eph 1.17:23. He prayed that the eyes of our understanding be opened. I think this is the key to miracles and positioning oneself for miracles.
The years between positioning and walking in obedience and faith may be long and arduous but we must believe the word of God and His promises. Our miracle awaits us. Let us appropriate it by faith. Our God is a miracle worker.
Lots of love
Pastor Noble
10/09/17